and the 21 January 1942 edition of Völkischer Beobachter published an article with the headline "British Denials – Admiralty Lies on Act of Piracy". British Naval Intelligence issued their own communique: The details of the raid were being kept secret even from the British Chiefs of Staff, who were only informed on 18 January 1942, that Duchessa d'Aosta had been intercepted offshore and was being taken to Lagos. On Fernando Po itself, Richard Lippett, who had remained on the island, was taken in for questioning by the Spanish authorities on 17 January 1942. He managed to persuade them he had had nothing to do with the departure of the ships, nor had he spent any money on the party for the ships' officers. He was released from custody on 27 January 1942, but was refused permission to leave the island. He finally left secretly by canoe, arriving in British territory on 1 March 1942. In the aftermath of the operation, Maid of Honour was left in Lagos and eventually sold to the Sierra Leone government as a converted trawler. Duchess d'Aosta was sailed to Greenock and then managed by Canadian Pacific as the Empire Yukon for the Ministry of War Transport. Likomba was managed by the Elder Dempster Lines, who renamed it Malakel in 1947 and then sold it to Liberia in 1948. After the raid March-Phillipps was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, Hayes was awarded the Military Cross, and Appleyard a Bar to his Military Cross; Lippett and Guise were each appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire. Another commando, and the only professional sailor on the raid, Private Anders Lassen, was the first man to board Duchessa d'Aosta. For conspicuous efficiency in getting the ship under way, Lassen was given a commission in the field, and the immediate award of the Military Cross. March-Phillipps was killed during Operation Aquatint in September 1942. On the same mission, Hayes evaded capture and crossed the Spanish border, only to be handed over to the Germans who kept him in solitary confinement for nine months before he was executed by firing squad on 13 July 1943. Appleyard later joined the Special Air Service, and on the same day that Hayes was executed Appleyard was reported missing when his plane failed to return from a mission. Lassen also joined the Special Air Service; he was awarded two bars to his MC